I hear repeatedly that I can buy guns on the Internet without a background check. Like most things on the subject of guns being proffered by the proponents of further limitations on our second amendment rights, it is a complete fabrication.

If I own a gun and need it to be serviced, I can ship my gun to a licensed gunsmith or gun shop for service. Once the gun has been serviced or repaired, it can be shipped directly back to me. Note that this only applies to guns I already own and have shipped to a licensed gunsmith or gun shop.

The difference arises when I order a gun on-line. I can have them ship a gun I ordered without doing any background check at all. The federal law is that an Federal Firearms Licensed (FFL) dealer can only ship a gun being purchased to another FFL dealer. I must provide the shipper with a local FFL dealer to receive my purchase. That dealer will send the shipper a copy of his FFL document and he can then ship my firearm to the address of the local FFL dealer. Once local laws and regulations have been satisfied and a NICS background check is completed, I can take delivery of my purchased firearm. The dealer cannot deliver a gun to me that is illegal in the locality, thus I cannot ‘mail order’ a gun I couldn’t buy from a local dealers stock and I can’t order a gun without still going through the same background check or being constrained by local laws or regulations. If the locality I live in has a waiting period, I still have to comply with that as well.

Internet sales, like many other ways of buying guns that are not available locally is not a sinister act in any way. An internet dealer may have an unusual model I am interested in or that is not stocked locally for any of a number of reasons. I might find an antique or collectible gun in another state where I could not travel there to buy it, so I buy it and have it shipped to a local FFL for transfer. Local dealers don’t mind handling these kind of transfers because they can charge a reasonable fee for the service.

You do not make the predator, criminal or statist, any less dangerous by disarming the prey.